Tempus Fugitive

by Nicola Rhodes

  Tamar sat up, unsteadily, to get a better look at him. He did not look like a doctor.

  ‘My name is Kent Clark,’ said this enigma, and Tamar understood as she remembered the swooping and the cape. She smiled knowingly. Kent looked at her. He had that look on his face, the look that was all too familiar to Tamar. So much for “Lori Lain”

  She grinned, then hurriedly wiped it off her face, now was not the time. ‘How did I get here?’ she asked, her memory was fuzzy for some reason. ‘Did I already say, “Where am I”?’

  ‘You were falling, and Mega Man caught you,’ he replied. ‘Can’t you remember where you fell from? Mega Man told us that there was no aircraft around that you could have fallen from.’

  Tamar tried to stop herself from laughing at this pathetic subterfuge, even if she had not already known, he was giving himself away with every word and gesture.

  Tamar leapt gracefully out of the bed and snatched his press pass from his pocket so suddenly that he had hardly realised what she had done before she was reading it out to him.

  ‘Kent Clark – Press pass,’ she read in a mocking sing song tone. ‘Press?’ she frowned ‘I see. So you aren’t here to see if I’m hurt or anything. You’re here because my little escapade has got people worried. No plane or helicopter or even a balloon to fall from. Well…’ she fixed him with a steely eye, ‘just why the hell should I tell you anything?’

  ‘Well…’ he stammered. ‘I was just hoping that you might … that is to say if you wouldn’t mind … I thought … if you would consent to enlighten … I’m sorry to have bothered you miss… er? I’ll be going now.’

  But Tamar had just realised the gravity of her situation and had decided not to let him leave just yet.

  ‘You know,’ she said as he turned to the door. ‘It’s just a personal opinion, but I think you could do with a better disguise.’

  ‘What?’ said Kent Clark amiably but with a hint of concern in his voice.

  ‘Of course,’ continued Tamar ignoring this. ‘It does seem to be working for you. So maybe I’m wrong.’

  ‘I think maybe you are still in shock, Miss,’ said Kent. ‘You appear to be rambling. I’ll send a doctor in on my way out.’ He opened the door.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Tamar. ‘For saving my life today. Pretty cool.’

  Kent turned back, all concern. ‘You are confused miss,’ he said. ‘I didn’t save you – Mega Man did.’

  Tamar winked wickedly at him. ‘That’s what I said,’ she agreed.

  He stared at her as if she were mad. It really was a pretty good act thought Tamar. Time to ring down the curtain. With another quick gesture, she snatched his glasses off his face. ‘Give it up mega– boy,’ she told him. ‘You aren’t fooling anyone.’

  He slammed the door hastily.

  He looked around nervously and waved his hand at her. ‘Keep your voice down,’ he urged.

  Tamar waved a hand dismissively. ‘If these fools haven’t worked it out by now, why then, they probably wouldn’t believe it if I wrote it in the sky in letters of fire. How many coincidences can people believe in? I’ll tell you, shall I? As many as it takes to keep their world from imploding. Trust me, I know.’

  Kent looked unconvinced. ‘So, how do you know?’

  Tamar smiled. ‘Funny story,’ she said. ‘It has to do with how I fell from nowhere out of the sky. Off the record?’

  * * *

  Denny was wandering around the – as far as he was aware – entirely fictional city of Megalopolis. He knew where he was because of the myriad signs telling him so, and admonishing him to keep it tidy. It was tidy, astonishingly so, and so were the people. He felt as if the signs were directed specifically at him, as if he were making the place untidy just by being there. He felt like this in a lot of places, even – since he met Tamar – in his own home.

  All this taken into account, he could not do what humans usually do in these situations, which was to tell himself that he had just imagined it. The fact had to be faced, he had seen Mega Man, really seen him. He tried to work out what it all meant. Could it be that Mega Man really had existed once? Did we just pretend afterwards that it never happened?

  There were strong arguments for this thesis, not least that, according to Tamar, that’s what humans always did in the event of a piece of history that they did not want to have happened. Add to that, the fact that this was the sort of thing humans tried to deny even when it was happening right in front of them, and it seemed more than plausible as an explanation. Tamar would know.

  Question was: where was Tamar? Denny – not the sharpest tool in the box at the best of times – and these were not the best of times by any stretch of the imagination, took a good twenty minutes to reach the conclusion that he should begin his search at the nearest hospital. The result of this brain lag was that he arrived at Megalopolis General too late. She was already gone.

  ‘What the hell happened to the simple plan we had?’ he thought dolefully, ‘just pop in and out of each file, no messing about. Why does this keep happening?’

  * * *

  Tamar’s memory was hazy. She knew what had happened in a vague way – that is, that she knew she was in a place that she should not be in, with a fictional superhero. But she had no idea how she had got there, or that she was supposed to have super powers of her own. She had forgotten all about what she was meant to be doing; she had forgotten Askphrit, and she had completely forgotten Denny. This may have been because, technically, none of these things existed in this version of reality.

  Since she had no ID or money, her new friend had had no option but to take her home with him – well he was the good-guy. Besides, he had strong reasons for wanting a private talk with her and to keep her where he could see her.

  He rounded on her almost the moment they walked through the door. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘How do you know who I am?’

  ‘Because I’m psychic?’ she said, impishly. ‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I’ll try to explain.’ She thought for a moment and said, ‘parallel universes.’ (Tamar’s memory may have been compromised, but her intelligence was as sharp as ever and she had already worked out what must have happened – in theory. Although, how it had happened remained a mystery.)

  This was a cryptic enough remark, typical of Tamar’s manner of communicating. Denny would have got the point immediately, being used to her staccato sentences, augmented, as they usually were, by psychic transmissions. Not that she remembered any of this, but she looked at her interrogator expectantly, as if this remark should clear the whole matter up.

  ‘What?’ he said, disappointingly.

  She sighed. ‘I’m from a parallel universe – you know? The multiverse theory?’

  He looked blank.

  ‘Anyway,’ she resumed. ‘In my universe, where I come from, you – Mega Man – are … well – um, how do I put this tactfully? I can’t! You’re fictional I’m afraid. A story. There are movies,’ she added helpfully.

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘You’re like Batman.’

  ‘Batman?’

  ‘You know? Not real – like Zap Fordham – he’s my favourite – not that I don’t like you too … you’re not going to hit me are you?’

  Kent Clark aka Mega Man drew in a deep breath to calm himself down. After all, clearly the poor girl was trying to be helpful and did not mean to be the most irritating person he had ever come across in his entire existence. She was no doubt rambling in this manner because of a blow to the head. He had to be patient.

  ‘Let’s try this again,’ he said, forcing himself to smile in what he hoped was a soothing way. In his current frame of mind, the result was more of a constipated grimace. Tamar could not help laughing, the frown returned.

  ‘You know?’ she said dreamily. ‘You don’t look at all how I would have expected, isn’t that funny?’

  He did not look as if he thought it at all funny.

  ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘Let’s try this again. Oh
it’s such a bore having to explain things. Okay, so, I’m from a parallel universe I don’t know how I got here so don’t ask. You do know about parallel universes don’t you?’

  * * *

  Plan A was simply to close the file and hope. Hope that Tamar exited the file at the same time as him from wherever she was. There was good reason to suppose she would. The problem with this idea was that there was still someone in the file room waiting for them. The other problem with this idea was that he had no idea where she was and whether or not she might just vanish right before someone’s eyes.

  Plan B was to leap off a tall building or a bridge shrieking wildly in the vain hope that a flying man in a cape would come to his rescue, thus enabling Denny to ask a few pertinent questions such as. ‘Where did you take my girlfriend?’

  How else could a stranger in town hope to make contact with a Superhero?

  Well, said a sarcastic voice in his head. If you know his secret identity, you could always try looking him up in the phone book, stupid!

  * * *

  ‘Take unicorns,’ Tamar was saying.

  ‘Unicorns?’ Kent was stupefied at this sudden change of tack.

  ‘Right, they’re not real are they?’

  ‘No, so what?’

  ‘Except that somewhere, in another universe, they are real, everything exists somewhere … I’m not explaining this very well am I?’

  ‘Actually,’ he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ‘I think I’m beginning to get the idea. In your world, I’m like a unicorn – somebody made me up, and now I exist for real?’

  ‘Or maybe it’s the other way around, I don’t pretend to understand it all – God that hurts.’

  ‘You’re injured?’ he asked solicitously.

  ‘Only my pride. I meant that it hurts to admit I don’t know something.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘What was I saying? Oh yeah, maybe when a thing doesn’t exist in one universe in reality it exists as a story or a myth instead, perhaps the universes sort of leak into each other. Maybe everything exists everywhere after all just not in the same way. I mean the popular theory is that multiple universes are created by choices people make. For every choice you make you could have made another and that choice and its consequences exist too. Maybe you’re only a story in my universe because that’s the way you want it there.’

  ‘And the unicorns? They like to preserve their anonymity too?’

  Tamar shrugged. ‘I said I didn’t really know. You don’t have to rub it in, besides it still works in a way. Unicorns do exist here, just not in reality. But you’ve heard of them. You could draw me a picture of one.’

  ‘I could draw you a picture of an elephant, doesn’t mean they really exist.’

  ‘Of course they exist … oh!’

  They looked at each other and laughed.

  * * *

  Having found the address, Denny could not decide what to do next. This indecisiveness was not new to him, but it was usually mitigated by having Tamar around to whom the phrase “bull in a china shop” would not be an inappropriate description. She had plenty of decision. Not for the first time, he realised that they made the perfect team. He wondered what she was blundering into without him to hold her back. Time to find out.

  * * *

  ‘Len Lowther?’

  ‘Never heard of him.’

  ‘Lori Lain? Lanni Long.?’

  ‘Why do all these people have the same initials?’

  ‘I don’t know, I didn’t make them up. Jerry Kite?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Timmy Jolson?’

  ‘Give it up.’

  ‘But you do work for the “Daily Globe”, don’t you?’

  No, I work for the Megalopolis Star.’

  ‘Oh.’ Tamar was disappointed. ‘But you grew up in Minorville, right? Tell me, you grew up in Minorville.’

  ‘Yes, I did.’

  ‘On a farm?’

  Whatever the answer to this question it was extremely effectively interrupted by a small whirlwind in the living room. Both Tamar and Kent were flabbergasted by the advent of an indoor tornado, neither of them having any memory of ever seeing any such thing before. Before the dust had settled, and Tamar had not even had time to quip ‘I guess we’re not in Kansas anymore.’ Which she had been thinking of doing? Which just goes to show, you can take the Djinn out of the girl … or something like that only more pertinent? Kent had whipped off his specs and become the eponymous hero in tights just as Denny emerged from his dustcloud.

  ‘Kraptonian!’ accused Mega Man.

  ‘Bollocks!’ said Denny with more truth than elegance.

  ‘Then you are some kind of super villain, what do you want of me?’

  Denny ignored him. ‘Tamar, what are you doing here? We have to get out of here – now!’

  Tamar looked at him curiously and slightly fearfully. ‘Do I know you?’

  Denny groaned. ‘Oh great,’ he said. ‘Amnesia! Like we don’t have enough problems.’ He paused to leisurely push Mega Man to one side as he tried to make a grab at Denny, and then continued. ‘I’m Denny – remember? – You don’t remember, of course you don’t, oh hell!’

  ‘Sir,’ said Mega Man, pompously. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave this young lady alone, or face me.’ He balled his fists and struck a fighting stance, with his chest stuck out and a fierce expression on his face. Tamar and Denny looked at each other, and both laughed. Mega Man dropped his arms sheepishly.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I must know him – he knows my name; maybe he can help us sort out what happened to me.’

  ‘You trust him?’

  Tamar looked at Denny. ‘Yes,’ she said, simply.

  ‘Even though he’s clearly not human?’

  ‘You can talk,’ said Denny, affronted.

  ‘So this Ash – pit…’

  ‘Askphrit.’

  ‘Whatever! He’s a god.’

  ‘Mad god.’

  ‘Who used to be a jinx?’

  ‘Djinn, as in genie.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Look, just come back with me, I’m sure it’ll come back to you.’

  ‘Back where?’

  ‘To the archives – mainframe – whatever.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I already explained all this.’

  Kent stirred. ‘If I may just interject here …’

  Both Tamar and Denny turned to him. ‘No!’ they said in unison.

  ‘But it seems fairly obvious to me that …’

  ‘No!’ This was Tamar.

  ‘All I want to say is …’

  ‘Just shut up.’

  ‘Tamar …’ began Denny.

  ‘Both of you,’ she said fiercely. She put her head in her hands. ‘I mean you!’ she pointed at Denny. ‘I don‘t know who you are or what the hell you’re talking about or what you expect me to do. And you!’ she looked at Kent. ‘Aren’t even a real person, so I don’t see why I should listen to either of you.’

  At this point, Denny lost patience. It had all just been too much for him. Having relied on finding Tamar and having her explain things to him, it was just too hard. She did not even know who she was for God’s sake! But she would remember, he was certain – well almost certain – if he could just get her out of here. Something about this file had made her lose her powers, that much he had been able to ascertain, and also any memory of ever having had any powers. It was possible that Askphrit had something to do with it. After all, he was going around changing history and Tamar had explained that this would alter people’s memories. But if he could get her back into mainframe, which was stuck, in the same second of eternity, maybe she would go back to normal.

  It would not occur to him until later that if she had forgotten her past, because it never really happened, then why it was that he still remembered it?

  Anyway, that was the current plan, and she wasn’t having any of it. So, in a moment of desperation, he did what was proba
bly the most stupid thing he could have done, he lost his temper and said. ‘Sod this, let’s go. Close files.’

  The world vanished; he opened his eyes and said. ‘Oh Hell!’

  Tamar rubbed her eyes in disbelief. ‘Where did he go?’

  Kent shrugged.

  PART TWO – TO HELL AND BACK

  ~ Chapter Thirteen ~

  ‘What the hell could it be?’

  Hecaté shrugged – as perplexed as Stiles. ‘It does not make sense. It would have to mean that there is another one of them out there, someone else using the files to travel, but that is impossible.’

  ‘We covered that. The fact is, there is an anachronism showing up in the present, and it can’t be Tamar and Denny or Askphrit, since they all came from here.’

  ‘I know, I know. So, who is it? And are they a threat? Maybe it is nothing to worry about.’

  ‘Where are Tamar and Denny? Can you find them?’

  ‘No, but that just means that they are blending in, because they do not need any help.’

  ‘Well – that’s good – right?’

  ‘Indeed, but …’

  ‘We should try to find out what’s causing the anachronism in the present, in case it’s a problem,’ said Stiles. ‘It couldn’t be caused by the time freeze could it?’ he added, hopefully.

  ‘No,’ she said, looking at him as if he were stupid.

  ‘Well, I don’t know, do I? This is all new to me, but what I am good at is detecting. What exactly are we looking for?’

  ‘There are several reports here of a man in strange clothing, who appeared suddenly in York, in a shopping centre. There are pictures – look. Since we’ve only just picked this up, we have to assume that this has happened since they left, in a manner of speaking. If you understand me.’

  ‘I think so, you think it might be because of something they, or Askphrit did.’

  ‘Yes, possibly, now that the files are open, who knows what may happen?’

  ‘Still, there’s no rush is there? I mean, he’s frozen in time now, just like everyone else.’